Unique swim school teaching kids how to stay safe in water this summer

BRAINTREE, Mass. — May is National Drowning Prevention Month, so Boston 25 News’ Julie Grauert visited a place that is making sure kids are safe in the water this summer.

Goldfish Swim School teaches kids, as young as 4-months-old, how to swim.

Most of us have memories of those first swim lessons that involve freezing pools, outdoor lakes and overall less-than-pleasant experiences.

“The kids love it here,” Goldfish Swim School owner Bill Burnett said. “They feel welcomed. The facility is awesome. It’s got the warm water. It’s very welcoming.”

Burnett said the above-average pool temperatures makes Goldfish Swim School unique.

“I’m definitely overdressed for this story because it’s 92 degrees in here, and 90 degrees in the pool,” Grauert said when she visited the pack Braintree facility on Saturday morning.

The kids taking lessons are having so much fun, they don’t even realize they’re mastering life-saving skills.

“The fact is that drowning is the leading cause of death in children, but we can change that. We’re changing that at Goldfish,” Burnett said.

That change begins with their youngest students, which are babies as young as 4-months-old.
Parents said they enroll their children for a variety of reasons.

"Her grandfather lives on a lake, so we wanted her to be comfortable in the water," mother Andrea Wood said.
And being comfortable in the water starts with the very basics.

“We teach how to get out of the pool,” Burnett said. “A simple way of, if a child falls into a pool? How do they get out of it?”

As the babies and their parents master the essentials, the bigger kids work in small groups of four with their instructors.

There are five levels based on age and experience, and the kids advance at their own pace.

There are six facilities in New England, including the one Grauert visited in Braintree. For more information about the Goldfish Swim School, click here.

Cox Media Group